Arm Impairment Physio Odyssey

Amateur athletes tend to be driven by one of three motivations – the thrill of competition, the investment in fitness, or enjoyable recreation. I’ve found that the fitness motivation is more prevalent among adaptive athletes than non-adaptive. The adaptive athlete will have fewer options for fitness given the constraints of their impairment(s). Sometimes, the fitness objective goes beyond general conditioning and the athlete is looking for a sport whose practice can actually improve their impairment as a form of extended physiotherapy.

Steve Bloyce, an adaptive rower at Maidenhead Rowing Club, has produced a video tracking this 18 month recovery from a major injury which he introduces as “a time progressive video of the rehabilitation process of a brachial plexus injury.”

The piece is as insightful as it is encouraging to anyone who has suffered a major impairment through injury. The sequence ends with him on his rowing machine training for the sport in which is he thriving.